1. Purchase photo sleeves with little compartments, like these: Photo Pocket Pages - Big Variety Pack 1 (60 Pages)
You can buy the Becky Higgins brand (who started the whole Project Life craze) or you can buy your own photo sleeves. These have 6 photos on a sheet. I flip-flop back and forth with styles and brands depending on what I think would look best based on the photos I have.

2. Cut up cardstock to fit the sleeves. I pre-cut a WHOLE bunch of scrapbook papers in order to fit so I can just grab them when I am ready. When I started this scrapbook, I originally bought a core kit from the Becky Higgins line, but then realized I had so much scrapbook paper already that I could use as well.

3. Spend some time just cutting card stock and trimming all of your photos. Gather colors that look good together. For example, on the spread above, I picked cardstock with greens because I had some pictures of Daria in grass.

4. Don't forget to date everything!

5. Outline pictures in marker to make them stand out more. Doodle frames around the pictures for extra interest.

6. Use non-traditional techniques for backgrounds. For example, on these pages, I had my 2 1/2 year old color all over the card stock paper. Then, I cut them up into backgrounds. These pages might not win any awards in scrapbooking magazines, but they are meaningful to me and that's what's important!

7. Use a white pen to add doodles, captions and journaling. My favorite pen to use is the Pentel Arts Sunburst Gel Pen, White. I have tried a lot of pens and this one works best for me on photographs. Find an area on a photo that is mostly a solid color and that is the perfect place to add your writing.

8. Don't go crazy buying supplies! For me, the most important tools which I use constantly are:

The other day I was able to finish up another art journal page while my darling two year old splashed around in the kiddie pool outside. It is so nice to sit outside on days like today, nice warm weather, but not too hot. Here is the "Anatomy of an Art Journal Page"!

One is a small canvas painting by artist Linda Woods. She is starting a journal revolution through her books. She had an Ebay auction for some artworks and I just loved this picture. I did not read the description carefully enough, so I thought it would be bigger, but it is a teeny-tiny masterpiece. It is now hanging on my wall by my front door.

Next, I am participating in the Inspiration Avenue postcard swap, and my first postcard arrived in the mail from Nancy Gerritzen. Thanks! It is very cool!

Amy has put together a blog hop called "All Together Now!" Today is the day we are supposed to brag about ourselves. Yes, she has given us permission to brag about ourselves. And there are prizes involved! The GIVEAWAY is at the end of this post. You should join in too!

Let's see.. here's a little about me.
My name is Marcia Beckett and I live in Madison, WI. I live with my awesome husband Andrew and darling 2 year old daughter Daria.
I teach art to elementary school kids at a gifted and talented school. I really like teaching art! I get to exercise my creativity every day. I blog about my adventures and projects at Art is Basic.
Earlier this year, I made this cool painting with my 3rd and 4th graders.

I love to paint, create mixed media art and make art journal pages!

I am a contributing editor for the newly launched Featuring Magazine, which is a magazine about mixed media art, art journaling and creativity.

I also run a group called Artists in Blogland, which has challenges and link parties! Join us to promote your blog.

And now for a giveaway prize! ONE WINNER will be able to pick anything from my Etsy shop! Wow, what a cool prize, right? I just launched my Etsy shop a month or so again and started stocking it up. I sell vintage postcards, collage packs and bits of my own art. Here is one thing that is in my shop now:

This is a vintage digital download. The winner will be able to pick anything: a digital download, one of my own artworks or some vintage ephemera.

To be eligible for this giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post. The winner will be announced MAY 26. Feel free to tell others about this giveaway. Thanks so much for checking out my blog! Sincerely, Marcia

A snippet from the journal page. "Love the questions as much as the answers"-- at our church we sometimes say this in the service. God is very mysterious and we are always filled with so many questions and *that* is ok.

I often get questions about what supplies I use or how I achieved the
layers on my journal pages, so I will walk you through a journal page in
it's stages of layers.

I am also linking this to Paint Party Friday because pieces of it are painted with inktense inks.

1. I started by sketching cute and odd little people and figures, with pencil. I was looking at another art journal page of mine that was filled with questions and I realized how it told so much about what was going on in my mind even though it was all questions and it really told a lot about my life at the moment. I let this page sit like this for a couple weeks.

2. Then I added pieces of colored tape on the edges.

3. I used Derwent 12 Inktense Block Tin Set
mixed with water and gesso to paint in the negative space with some pastel colors.
I'm still not sure I like the coloring on the top half of the page, but oh well.

5. Next, I added some gesso mixed with water to soften things up a bit.

6. I probably should have taken another picture in this in-between stage. To finish things off, I used Pan Pastels in places to create bright sweeping colors in the negative spaces. I added more decorative tape. I added some rub-on letters and symbols. The flowers were cut from a scrapbooking border and outlined with black marker. I went around the guys again and re-outlined some of the lines. I made the words darker and I added the checkered border and strips around the words.

Well I hope you've enjoyed this Pages in Stages installment and leave me a comment if it was helpful to you.